Posted by SLS on March 4, 2016, at 7:46:15
In reply to Re: Aha moment, posted by J Kelly on March 4, 2016, at 7:12:28
> Anyway my new therapist is talking to me about creating pathways in the brain with repeated positive behaviors.
Any learning or extinction (positive or negative) requires changes in neuronal pathways. There are several good reasons to engage yourself in psychotherapy. It might not improve your illness very much, but it can:
1. Create a lifeline to help you survive during your worst episodes.
2. Developing coping strategies to enhance your ability to survive and minimize pain and suffering.
3. Attend to old dysfunctional thinking.
4. Reduce the psychosocial stress that both induced the illness and made it more difficult to treat.
5. Allows drugs to work better and prevents relapse once remission is achieved.
Personally, I am inclined to avoid psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapies. They take too long and can increase stress rather than reducing it. For me, CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and IPT (interpersonal therapy) were good choices, especially when combined.
> I'm listening. And I'm realizing how lazy I've been.
Please don't confuse laziness with depression.
Depression often "feels" like laziness. Loss of interest in life robs one of drive. This is exacerbated by deficits in motivation and energy. It makes no sense to beat up on yourself. I hope you realize that just staying alive is a huge accomplishment. Not only that, but you are also fighting to find healing and move forward.
- ScottSome see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1086683
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20160131/msgs/1086703.html